So, I took Ghost out this morning and noticed when I brought her in that her back foot was bleeding. We caught her and got a good look at it, and it appears that one of her nails has worn down to the point of bleeding and the other nails on that foot are worn just about to the quick as well. The nails on the other foot are worn as well. We have not had to trim her nails as long as we've had her, so that's not the issue. Has anyone else had this problem, or have any thoughts on why this is happening?

We take her on 1 walk per day in our neighborhood, about 20-25 minutes and she bounces between the street and the grass along the route. We didn't walk her Saturday or Sunday courtesy of Tropical Storm Lee, but did do the usual walk last night with no apparent problems. This morning we got it packed with a baking powder paste to stop the bleeding and she's chilling out (unhappily) in her crate. I only have to work for a little while today, so I will be going and picking up some booties at Petsmart a little later.

In other news, she has decided to become a picky eater over the weekend. I finally convinced Aaron to upgrade Lulu to a higher quality food than Purina, and I think Ghost got jealous of the switch. Suddenly her Blue Wilderness isn't good enough I got some success putting warm water on the food over the weekend, but this morning she turned her nose up even at that. The look on her face was kind of priceless actually, like a 5 year old being forced to eat veggies

Thanks in advance, and hopefully we can get the nail situation taken care of.

I don't know why her nails would wear out so quickly. The outside toe nails on my girls wears quickly, but never to the point of bleeding. I just cut the other ones and leave those alone. If the booties don't work, they do make soft claws for dogs. You could just use them on the one nail.

Their nails grow at different rates so it does happen that dogs with slow growing nails will bleed when they get filed to the quick naturally from concrete during walks. I use flour to stop the bleeding and let them heal naturally. You could get soft nail caps that slip on the nails for added protection or maybe have her wear booties outside on walks.

As for the food issue, I'm a strong believer in tough love. I decide what my dogs will eat, not them and I certainly would never cater to picky eating. Picky eaters are not born, they are created. A healthy dog will not starve itself and there's nothing wrong with showing a,little tough love and being more stubborn than her. Your life will be a lot easier and she'll be better off for it in the long run. I've broken plenty of picky eaters and I honestly think it's harder on us than it is on the dogs. Lol I'm not a cruel, insensitive person...I love my dogs more than anything and I don't put up with picky eating because I know it's best for them. That's just me though...I know some people in my family think I'm mean for that yet they're so jealous that my dogs eat everything they are given right away always...go figure.

One of Kale's nails did this too. I put pressure on it to stop the bleeding, then put some neomycin on it. It healed up rather quickly.

Thanks Val, Sara, and Brooke! I will be heading to Petsmart shortly for some booties and nail caps. She seems to be ok now, Aaron got the bleeding stopped and kept her quiet while I was at work, and she's amazingly mellow considering she skipped her morning walk.

Val, I tend to agree with you on the tough love thing for the food, and I had to chuckle while I was reading your post. She will eat Blue Wilderness and she will like it! Now I just need to apply tough love with Aaron on food. I call him my picky 4 year old... I already told him starting tonight he can eat what I make or he can find something else, but I need to drop a few lbs so I can look good for him in my wedding dress No more catering to his pickiness at the sacrifice of nutrition.

Thanks again all, and hopefully Ghost's nails will heal quickly.

Only time I've had that happen with the nails was when there was a injured chipmunk kitty found on our walk and I had to drag her away. I should have just picked her up, but I wasn't thinking at the time! After the bleeding stopped, I coated the nails with liquid bandage. I had to reapply it about every other day, but it was cheaper than the claw caps and to my dogs, booties mean dogsledding or running in some capacity, and I didn't feel like getting dragged when walking. Most dogs kick off the boots anyway if they are not use to them.

I never have to clip Shaqua's nails because they wear down quickly. A few times they have worn down to the quick as well. I see some suggestions here, but is it something I should be concerned about? She doesn't seem in pain...